The present invention relates to a new and improved tourniquet.
The present invention also relates to a new and improved clamping lock for use with a tourniquet.
The invention relates specifically to a new improved tourniquet containing a clamping lock and a strap which can be pulled through the clamping lock and can be suspended in the same at one of its ends in order to form a stanching loop.
Tourniquets of the aforementioned type for medical applications like, for example, for stanching the arm of a patient, in known designs comprise a slit in the clamping lock for the self-locking passage of an elastic band, one end of which can be suspended at a spring-loaded flap linked to the clamping lock in order to form the stanching loop.
To tighten the stanching loop, for example, around the arm of a patient, tension is applied to the free end of the strap which projects from the clamping lock. To release the stanching loop the flap is actuated against the force of the spring, whereby the suspended end of the strap is released.
It is disadvantageous in such a tourniquet that the disengagement of the strap occurs immediately after actuation of the flap. As a consequence thereof the strap tension cannot be decreased in a regulated way during the medical work. Such a regulated reduction in the strap tension and thus the level of the blood stanching in the blood vessels is frequently required. Additionally, if the tourniquet has to be completely released and tightened anew, then such frequently impedes or prolongs the medical work in an impermissible manner. In particular a single-handed operation for manipulating the tourniquet is impossible during a prolonged stanching process when using the aforementioned design.